Mayoral candidate Karen Stintz says she’s assembling a slate of candidates to run in next year’s municipal election.

“I’m looking at the open seats. I know Councillor (Doug) Ford won’t be running again so I’ll certainly be looking to run a candidate in that ward,” said the councillor, following Thursday’s TTC meeting.

“I think it’s important to build a team. I believe I can work with council as it is, but where there’s an open seat I think it’s important to support a candidate I can work with,” said Stintz, who is leaving her TTC chair position in February but hopes to remain on that board.

She was responding to comments made by Doug Ford earlier, inviting conservative candidates to call him or his brother, Mayor Rob Ford, on their private phone line.

Asked if that meant he’s running a slate, Doug Ford said, “No. We aren’t going to have a slate. We’re going to support people that respect the taxpayers. We want people to respect the taxpayers, and the majority of these councillors down here do not respect the taxpayers.”

He pointed to the names of councillors Maria Augimeri, Janet Davis, Paula Fletcher, Sarah Doucette and Paul Ainslie — a former ally with whom he had a major falling-out over Ainslie’s opposition to the $2-billion Scarborough subway plan and its costliness to city taxpayers.

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